SIGNED SHIBAJI AND SEALED YAMASAKI, AND INSCRIBED MO HANABUSA ITCHO NO ZU, 19TH CENTURY

Another circular bamboo tray by this artist, also after Hanabusa Itcho, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, no. W.257-1916, and the same design appears on an inro in the present catalogue (lot 710) [see 1 below]. The motif appears to derive indirectly from an album-leaf by Itcho in the Okura Skukokan, Tokyo, showing a shishimai [lion dancer] and komuso [travelling monk].

1 Wrangham, E.A., The Index of Inro Artists, (Harehope, Northumberland, 1995), 234

2 Yasumura Toshinobu, Edo meisaku gacho zenshu IV: Kano-ha-Tan'yu, Morikage, Itcho [Masterpieces of painted albums from the Edo period IV: Kano School: Tan'yu, Morikage, Itcho], (Tokyo, 1994), 150 (pl. no. 302)